Well this is one of those sleeper episodes that the first time you watch it you think "Meh..stand alone..weird alien tech...psi-corps stuff." File in memory..dismiss." And it turns out to have a significant impact in a few seasons. JMS doesn't leave many loose ends out there. This episode is a slower paced one I notice because I feel like they've spent a lot of money on action episodes in recent episodes, which probably meant they had to constrain their budget a little bit, especially for the finale.

The plot of the whole criminal mind wipe deal...I really could care less for. I thought it was overacted and not that interesting. Does tie nicely with the alien tech/doctor plot though. And another thing I just thought: was this a foreshadow of Talia's eventual death of her personality?

I can't really tell which is the main and which is the b-plot. Nicely written and woven.

Finally we do get to see a feature of Franklin though! It seems he disappears for a few episodes in the first season and we don't get to see him much. Here we see his compassionate doctor morality which isn't seen in a lot of the military personnel. Ivanova does have a soft spot though, as we see.

A question: The actress who plays the doctor lady..she seems realllly familiar and I didn't see anything on IMDB that caught my eye, but she was a character actor on a looooot of different shows/movies. Is there anything significant I should recognize her from?

Second..it seems JMS did actually leave a loose end, because it looked like there was a budding romantic relationship for Franklin, and I don't seem to recall seeing the daughter again? Franklin is kind of a player though...

A question: The actress who plays the doctor lady..she seems realllly familiar and I didn't see anything on IMDB that caught my eye, but she was a character actor on a looooot of different shows/movies. Is there anything significant I should recognize her from?
Thoughts?

she and Bill Mummy wre both in the 60`s show "Lost In Space", she was his mum in it if i remember correctly.

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"The trouble with being a cynic is that you eventually get labelled as a highly reliable fortune-teller"

I can't comment on the loose ends regarding Franklin's one episode love affair because I don't think there is any information regarding that whole thing. But other than that this episode stand alone is a fair episode at best but we all know that the alien device machine has some important appearances in future episodes. It is always cool to see the actor that was formerly in Star Trek: The Next Generation and Aliens oviously played by Mark Rolston. Overall not my favorite episode but again it plays important role in future episodes. The whole humor between Lennier and Londo is wonderfully done and of course Talia Winters was ok too.

Not Great but not terrible either... B- episode at best.

Alex

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"The Babylon project was our last best hope for peace..It Failed...In the year of the shadow war it became something greater...Our last best hope for victory..the year is 2260..the place Babylon 5"--Lt. Commander Susan Ivanova (opening main title narration from B5)

"Faith...Manages"--Delenn and Lennier from B5
"Oh, boy, is this GReAT!!"--Stephen Furst as Dorfman (Flounder) from Animal House

"Not without dinner and flowers" was probabey one of JMS's best one liners anyway.

I think one of the best moments is early on when Londo says, "Touch this." and points to the area around his ribs. What a great alien twist on making a vulgar gesture. I mean that is some major attention to detail. Those kinds of details are a top 10 reason for why Babylon 5 is so great.